Tuesday, March 3, 2009

I received an assessment this morning for my WFF tax credit for the next financial year. When I saw the new credit amount I first went "woohoo", then my next thought was no wonder the country is going bankrupt if this is how much I'm getting.I then read further and saw that the error was in my income assessment. I know I work in Hospitality which is famous for crap salaries, but for some reason my income had been assessed at $34556 for the upcoming year. Fuk me, I pay the staff more than that!I then settled in with book, laptop and phone ready to waste an hour of my life getting it sorted. It didn't take too long really as I've found a way to circumvent the tiresome phone robot and speak directly to a real person.When I asked why my income had been assessed so low when their on screen records show what my current income is, I was told "we have to assess it as something then the client can contact us to correct it". When I queried that wouldn't it be logical to assess at a similar rate to the previous years income I was then told "we don't know if you have got a new job or not". I resisted the impulse to say that I'd have to a total dumb fuk to take a new job with such a hefty salary drop, instead just commented that "you must be getting a lot of phone calls then", to which the agent agreed.I must say I find this whole thing quite alarming if this is a new trend in income assessment by the IRD. Not everyone who gets WFF is going to be astute enough to pick up the incorrect salary level and probably just think that the subsidies have been increased. If other peoples notifications have been as incorrect as mine I forsee a lot future problems for them when they have to pay back any overpayments made to them.Sharpen up IRD.

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comments:

Totally spot-on with your second sentence. The country has been well fucked by the cretinous Working For (Other Peoples) Families scheme. Exacerbated by moronic implementation by deadhead civil servants.

yes..but...but.....some parts of the scheme are good, ie the way it applies to me! As I've pointed out before other countries eg HK, Aus etc have tax releif for those working fulltime and supporting dependents.....

But yes fully agree that any scheme that encourages people to give up employment, as has happened with part time housekeepers at my place of employment, as they get more money by not working, is just totally ludicrous

leaving the comfortable company wife lifestyle was my own choice, so therefore I am responsible for my income and living standard, hence never considering state hand outs, or even child support from the sperm donor.

However historically NZ used to have tax relief for the breadwinner supporting dependents, similar to what other countries still have. Maybe that should be reinstated instead of the current system which encourages people to NOT work.

"When I asked why my income had been assessed so low when their on screen records show what my current income is, I was told "we have to assess it as something then the client can contact us to correct it".

Can you teach me how to do this UnPC

" but for some reason my income had been assessed at $34556 for the upcoming year. Fuk me, I pay the staff more than that!"

I've had several dealings with IRD over WFF and assessing my income incorrectly. That was when we were actually entitled to $3 per fortnight and were just going to offset it against my tax liability at the end of the year.

How do I know I've got a tax liability? Because I tried to get a special tax code for a secondary employer to deduct tax at the correct rate, but gave up after 30 minutes talking to an IRD moron who didn't even know what a withholding payment is.

Bryan, not too much 1 on 1 people contact in my area, you just need to be fit so you can haul the masses of furniture around, and around, and around.....then break it down and set it up somewhere else.

Michael, yes I found this whole thing bizarre as every other year they have assessed the income with a very modest increment on the previous years incomelevel.

About Me

I accept that I am deeply shallow and incredibly vain, someone has to set the standard. I am un-pc as I will rat on my own kind for the sake of a good laugh, I don't vote, and have no allegiance to either gender.